A tense, anxious day after a long, tiring train journey

Shortly after young madrasa students and their instructors were stopped for questioning at the Bengaluru Cantonment railway station on Tuesday, activists of some Hindu right-wing outfits also arrived there, presuming the children were being taken to Kerala for religious conversion.

They urged CWC and police officials to send the children to the state-run boys’ home as they were not accompanied by parents or guardians. They wanted the police and CWC officials to “thoroughly investigate” whether the boys were being taken for child labour or they were potential victims of organ transplant rackets.

The crowd at the railway station was thin until noon with just a few heads of left-wing outfits and members of some NGOs being present. But as the day drew to a close, the number of people demanding the immediate release of the boys swelled. Among them were Muslim religious leaders and representatives of BOSCO and other child protection groups. Social workers and lawyers were also seen getting into a huddle to discuss the situation.

Sensing the tension, police tightened security inside and outside the railway station. A platoon was deployed to guard the children in the waiting room and those sitting in vans outside the railway station.

The police were, however, sensitive enough to ensure that only plain-clothes officers spoke to the children.

The boys were served refreshments in the waiting room. They were seen relaxing, playing games and even listening to music inside the waiting room while things were getting tense outside.